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'Cathouse' co-defendant said he planned killings, inmate testifies

A man accused of participating in the killings of a star of a reality TV show about prostitution and three others acknowledged handing down the orders, a federal prisoner testified Friday at the Oklahoma County Courthouse.

Denny Phillips sitting in the courtroom during his preliminary hearing at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. Photo by Paul B. Southerland, The Oklahoman

Prosecutors believe Phillips was at the drug house, either outside or inside, at the time of the attack.

Mease, a native of Iowa, is serving federal time for possessing a firearm.

He testified that Phillips told him he wasn't at the murder scene but “was there watching.”

Other witnesses

also testify Friday

Another witness, the defendant's former girlfriend, told a judge Phillips described the killings in such detail it gave her the impression he witnessed them.

“He liked to brag,” Kelsey Day testified.

Day said Phillips told her Brooke Phillips didn't die easily, that “she was still screaming” after being shot, stabbed and burned.

Barrientos, a drug dealer with ties to the Mexican cartel, was the intended target of the attack, prosecutors allege.

Police identified Denny Phillips as a distributor who made frequent trips to Oklahoma City to pick up drugs and take them back to the Tulsa area.

Phillips and Barrientos had a falling out in the days leading up to the slayings because Phillips owed him $30,000 and had not made payments on a car he bought from Barrientos, a third witness testified Friday.

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by Tim Willert

Education Reporter

Tim Willert is a native Californian with Oklahoma ties who covers education. Prior to moving to Oklahoma in June 2011, he was as an editor for FOXSports.com in Century City, Calif., and reported on courts for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and...